ACLU moves to challenge North Carolina's gay marriage ban

RALEIGH, N.C., July 9 (UPI) -- The American Civil Liberties Union announced its plan Tuesday to challenge North Carolina's ban on same sex marriages.

It will ask the state attorney general to allow the group to amend a complaint in an existing case regarding second-parent adoptions, The (Raleigh) News & Observer reported.

The case, filed in Greensboro in 2012, involves six same-sex couples and challenges a state ban on second-parent adoptions, which occur when one partner in an unmarried couple, gay or straight, adopts the other partner's child.

Chis Brook, legal director of the ACLU of North Carolina, said if Attorney General Roy Cooper agrees to the request, he would not be agreeing to same-sex marriage, merely allowing the ACLU to make its case against North Carolina's same-sex marriage ban in court.

"All we're asking is they consent to our amending the complaint," Brook said.